Wednesday, 12 September 2007

Orange Cake

It was my birthday last Friday and I was absolutely spoiled!! Everyone gave me cooking foody stuff which was fantastic!! Best birthday for presents EVER I reckon!! And one of the presents I received from Andy was the Stephanie Alexander cookbook which I have had my eye on for a very long time. He also gave me a deep fryer (like my thighs need it!)

This Stephanie Alexander book is amazing. It is an encyclopedia for any cook, especially Australians!! It is divided into chapters based on the ingredient! So if you are looking to cook with limes for example, then head to 'L' for lime and it will give you a complete background on limes, how to store them, how to cook them, how to peel them, ideas and tips and information one would never reaslise about limes; plus a whole bunch of fantastic recipes which main ingredient is lime!

It has an amazing range of recipes for all the standard ingredients like beef, chocolate, cheese, olives etc; but also goes as far as kangaroo, pheasant, yabbies and rabbit, to chesnuts, tarragons, pommegranates and figs! I am going to have a fantastic time making my way through this book, all 1,126 pages!!!

So tonight I decided I would bake a cake! Also because Andrew's brother Dave and his fiance Monique gave me a gorgeous cake tin for my birthday. And so the orange cake seemed like the best choice...

It is delicious! The icing is like the glaze on Krispy Kremes! It has just enough orange flavour to not be overpowering. I couldn't wait to cut myself a slice!

250g softened unsalted butter

1 1/2 cups castor sugar

4 eggs, lightly beaten

100mg orange juice

250g self raising flour

ICING

1 cup pure icing sugar

1 tablespoon Grand Marnier

1 tablespoon orange juice

40g butter, melted

Preheat oven to 180 degrees and greace a 22cm spring form tin or round cake tin with a little butter.

Blend butter, sugar, eggs and orange juice in a food processor for about 1 minute. (I used an electric mixer). Add flour and mix again until smooth and creamy, about another minute. Spoon into tin and bake for 50 minutes or until skewer inserted into the middle tests clean. Transfer tin to a wire rack for 5 minutes, then turn cake out. Cool completely before icing.

To make the icing, combine all ingredients into a bowl and warm over a saucepan of hot water. Pour icing over cake, allowing it to run down the sides.